Golden Fleece Award

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. French Hill (AR-02) named Amtrak as the latest recipient of his Golden Fleece Award for its persistent financial mismanagement and failure to meet its mandate as a self-sustaining passenger rail company. Since its creation in 1971, Amtrak has received more than $100 billion in federal subsidies yet has never once turned a profit. In fiscal year 2024… Read more »

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. French Hill (AR-02) named the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) as the latest recipient of his Golden Fleece Award for their inadequate operating practices for the Veterans Crisis Line (VCL). The VCL is the VA’s suicide prevention hotline for veterans. Unfortunately, recent reports have documented inadequate staffing, a lack of assessment… Read more »

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Rep. French Hill (AR-02) named the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) as the latest recipients of his Golden Fleece Award for their challenges in ensuring effective mental health screening for service members and veterans who are transitioning from military to civilian life. As a result of a 2018 executive order, the… Read more »

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Rep. French Hill (AR-02) named the U.S. Department of Commerce as the latest recipient of his Golden Fleece. Thanks to their bureaucratic red tape, three years after Congress appropriated over $42 billion to bring the internet to rural America, exactly zero Americans have been connected to the internet through the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD)… Read more »

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Rep. French Hill (AR-02) named the United States General Services Administration (GSA) as the latest recipient of his Golden Fleece Award for their inability to properly address decades-long problems associated with managing the federal government’s real property portfolio. Rep. Hill said, “The United States Government Accountability Office has included… Read more »

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Rep. French Hill (AR-02) named the United States Department of the Navy as the latest recipient of his Golden Fleece Award for their poor planning and lack of oversight that allowed a $3.7 billion modernization of Navy vessels to dramatically underperform expectations. Rep. Hill said, “In 2012 and 2013, the Navy proposed retiring several cruisers due to budget… Read more »

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Rep. French Hill (AR-02) named the United States Department of Labor (DOL) as the latest recipient of his Golden Fleece Award for their uninvolved administration of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) after a year of fumbled public communications and data releases.   Rep. Hill said, “This year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has botched the release of two… Read more »

LITTLE ROCK, AR - Rep. French Hill (AR-02) named the United States Department of Education (ED) as the latest recipient of his Golden Fleece Award, once again, for new revelations about their mistakes in their rollout of the 2024-2025 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and concerns that their incapacity to address these outstanding issues will result in lower… Read more »

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Rep. French Hill (AR-02) named the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) as the latest recipient of his Golden Fleece Award for their poor oversight of states’ administration of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits that have led to a second straight year of record high improper payments made through the program. Rep. Hill said, “SNAP… Read more »

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Rep. French Hill (AR-02) named the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) as the latest recipient of his Golden Fleece Award for their implementation of an Affordable Care Act marketplace subsidy structure that encourages fraudulent behavior and lack of oversight and policies to safeguard against these actions. Rep. Hill said, “The Biden Administration… Read more »